The future of the SQH empire: Some exciting changes

Greetings, everyone. Yes, I’m back, and I’m excited to get back to creating new content for you guys. I’ve had a grand old think about how I want to proceed in the future, and I think I’m ready to start making some changes … for the better, mostly.

Overall, the idea is to focus more on video content, specifically Let’s Play content. This doesn’t mean that the SQH Podcast is going away forever; nor does it mean that I’ll stop blogging. But it does mean that my focus will change and, hopefully, sharpen as I move forward.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty details.

YouTube ads

First of all, let’s get the not-so-exciting change out of the way: I’m going to start monetizing my YouTube videos in the future. Yes, I know, I made a big stink about how I didn’t like advertising on YouTube, and my feelings haven’t really changed on that. I was pushing for my Patreon because I felt like people needed to have a choice about whether or not they wanted to support me financially for content that I, honestly, really didn’t feel very confident about.

I’ve since come to realize that that’s a somewhat shortsighted way of viewing things. Yes, ads on YouTube are still annoying as all hell, but that’s why god invented adblockers. And I have no problem with people using adblockers when viewing my content on YouTube. Frankly, I do, myself.

The more I thought about it, the less sense it made to outright refuse money on principle. It’s all very good in an ideological sense, but, hey, that’s my ideology. Turning on ads is not going to change how I feel about it, but other people might not feel as strongly about it as I do. Not having ads on is not going to make shitty advertising go away. It’s just me being an unruly bastard for no real good reason.

And I felt it would be better to make this decision now, while I’m a complete nobody, rather than later — on the off-chance that I might actually gain some sort of traction with the content I’m doing.

You don’t have to, but I’m not going to stop you.

Two videos a week

Let’s move on to something more exciting. I think I have a system in place now where I’ll be able to offer two Let’s Play videos a week.

Basically, I’ll record these in advance on Wednesdays and release them on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I can do this because I currently have Wednesdays off and have the time to record two game videos in one day. If that changes in the future, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

No more double-posted content

This also means that I’ll stop posting the videos that I do on this blog. In fact, I’ll be retooling this website to focus on the actual blogging I’ve been doing, and be more of a hub central that lets people know where they can go for my other content.

I’m doing this for two reasons: First, because double-posting takes too goddamn long. When I record and upload a video, I just want that to be the end of it. I don’t want to have to open a dozen more windows and post the same content on a number of different websites.

Second, because I think it actually confuses things a bit. Audiences today are smart. If they want video content, they know where to go for that. They don’t need to follow this blog, or my Tumblr, or my Google+ page (I actually do have one) to know that I’ve uploaded a YouTube video.

It’ll sharpen the content on this blog — so that it’s used primarily for actual blogging — and not being clogged with all sorts of other shit.

I have a thing for road signs today, apparently.

Weekly streams on Twitch

Another reason for that is that I want to try my hand at Twitch streaming. I plan to try doing a weekly stream of a game — most likely on the weekends.

Why? Well, because I’m having a lot of fun doing Let’s Play videos, and I think I would also have fun playing a game live and have people chime in while I’m actually playing. I know that’s not going to happen right off the bat, but you gotta start somewhere. And that’s what I’m going to do.

Again, I don’t want to have to write a blog post every time I’ve done a stream. When it’s over, it’s over, and the highlights of the stream would then go up on YouTube.

Twitch very nicely lets people know when a stream is beginning, if people are following me on Twitch, so they don’t need a reminder from this blog (or, again, Tumblr or Google+) that I’ve done something. And if people don’t want to follow me on Twitch, they can still watch the highlights on YouTube.

The future of the podcast

With the 3rd season of the Space Quest Historian podcast now complete, that frees up a lot of time for me to focus on other types of content. Not that I haven’t enjoyed making the podcast — because I certainly have! — but it’s a time-consuming effort, and there’s so much going on with the current resurgence of adventure games that I feel my time could be spent better producing more visual content.

That’s not to say the podcast is dead and buried, far from it. But when it returns, it might be in a very different format than what you’re used to. It might be more conversational, like the four extra episodes I’ve got lined up in the near future. Maybe I’ll change my mind and go back to the way things were. I don’t know. We’ll see.

It’s not that I’m leaving podcasting behind altogether, either. Again, far from it. I’ve still got Back Seat Designers and my new Nerd Against the Machine! podcast with Robert Menes. So your ear canals are in no way safe from me in the future.

In conclusion

Everything is a learning experience. When I started doing all of this — first the podcast, then the YouTube thing — I was just feeling my way around. I knew I was basically talking to myself; I just wanted to do it because it seemed fun.

It’s still fun, and I’m still just doing it primarily for myself. I know that some very nice and wonderful people are watching, but I also know that in the grand scheme of things I’m a complete nobody. I just recently cracked 150 subscribers on YouTube, which is an encouraging number, but I’m well aware that it’s a very small number. I’m not in the big league, nor do I harbor any delusions that I’ll ever be.

I just go with the flow, and sometimes that means shaking things up and refocusing on what I want to do. Right now, that’s playing games and hopefully entertaining others doing so. I hope you’ll join me for the ride, wherever it might take me in the future.